


First Day

by AgeOfRogues



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-10 21:46:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5602189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgeOfRogues/pseuds/AgeOfRogues
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Happy First Day! Let's have some fun!</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Day

"Let's go ice skating."

 

Tanwen looked up from the book she was reading to Iuen towards where she had heard her Commander's voice.  Cullen was standing at the top of the stairs to their quarters, having just returned from a frigid training session with the troops.  She knew she should have been there with them, but Iuen had only been back with her for a few short weeks and she wanted to focus on him as much as possible to make up for the nearly two years of lost time.

 

Tanwen closed the cover of 'The Seer's Yarn', smiling at how Iuen had enjoyed reading the book with her, even trying to read a few himself.  She leaned forward to kiss the top of his dozing head and turned to Cullen. "Ice skating?"

 

"Yes.  It's where you wear special boots with dulled blades on the sole and slide along an iced-over lake or pond." he paused and she could see realization forming. "You've never been ice skating before, have you?"

 

She could feel a slight blush form on her cheeks as she stood to walk over to him quietly.  "Until I was sent to the Conclave, I had never even seen snow before.  It never really got cold enough for snow or thick ice in Ostwick because of the Waking Sea."

 

Cullen reached for her hand and brought it up to his lips, pressing the cold flesh to her warm knuckles and sending a shiver through her that wasn't entirely to be blamed on the chill. "Then come with me.  There is a lake beyond the village that I am told people go to to have fun.  As leaders, we don't get to have fun very often.  We can even bring Iuen with us and I can teach both of you!"

 

It wasn't often that Tanwen had seen Cullen so excited about something, and after everything that had happened with them and James coming with her parents to escort her son to Skyhold, they needed this.

 

"Okay. Let's go!"

 

It hadn't taken much convincing Iuen.  The two year old had been a ball of energy and flurried snow since he arrived, and he enjoyed taking every opportunity to go out into the white fluff he could. Once they were all bundled up and had been able to find the special skates, they trekked down to the village and through to the other side, then down a path to the base of the waterfall that the river below Skyhold lead to.  There, Tanwen saw quite a few villagers and their families all sailing around the lake on skates like the ones Cullen had acquired for the three of them. 'It doesn't look that hard.' she thought to herself.

 

How wrong she was.

 

"Come on, Tan. You swing a great-sword with ease, you have the balance for this."

 

Tanwen glared up at Cullen as he clutched one of her hands in each of his.  He had just helped her up from falling to the hard ice for, what seemed, the thousandth time, and his huge grin had yet to dissipate. Legs spread wide for support and rear sticking out behind her, she looked over to where Iuen was slowly scooting around with the help of some of the village children. He, too, had a large grin on his chubby face - full of teeth and giggling, his blue eyes sparkling.  Tanwen turned back to Cullen and swallowed as he pulled on her arms to help her stand up straight.  All she wanted to do was throw her hands out and flail to balance herself or to keep from falling.

 

"You're enjoying yourself, aren't you, Cullen Rutherford?" Her brows furrowed into a pout.

 

Cullen pulled her until her body was flush to his - his knee-melting smirk playing on his scarred lips. "So what if I am? Admit it, Tanwen. You are thoroughly enjoying yourself, despite the falls. I would have taught you last year, but you were else where during First Day."

 

"I remember.  I think I was on the Storm Coast recruiting The Chargers and The Blades of Hessarian." She felt herself warm in his arms, helped by the warmth of his breath and the effect his voice was having on her.

 

Without warning, when she shifted slightly as he began moving them once more, her skates slipped from under her and she slipped with a surprised squeak from her.  Cullen tightened his arms around her and hefted her back to her feet with a chuckle. "Are you ready to try again?"

 

"Not really?"

 

Cullen moved back away from her until they were arms-length away from the other, a smile still plastered across his face as puffs of warm air escaped his lips and solidified in front of his face. "You can do it, Tanwen!  Where's your determination? Enjoy this with me!"

 

With another heavy swallow, Tanwen gripped his hands tighter and bent her knees slightly as she would when preparing to swing her sword. With a nod, Cullen began skating backwards, moving his feet in a wave pattern to push himself slowly backwards as he kept an eye on her.

 

"Determination. Determination.  I can do this. I can do this." She muttered to herself, never taking her eyes off her feet, as if to dare them to slip from beneath her again. 

 

Before long, they were gathering speed and Tanwen felt like she could loosen her death-grip on Cullen's hands.

 

"There we go!  I told you that you could do this, love.  Want to try it by yourself?"

 

Tanwen knew the look on her face turned into one, that of a frightened ram, but she quickly tampered it down and instead, replaced it with one of determination again.  With another nod, Cullen dropped her hands, but stayed within reach just in case.

 

When she began slowing down, Cullen caught her attention.  "Now, what you want to do is slowly push one foot away.  Be careful, you don't want to unbalance yourself. When you bring the foot back, do the same with the other.  Like this." Cullen showed her, pushing first one foot away, then the other, repeating in a slow motion so as not to get too far from her.

 

She mimicked his action and caught up to him slowly, but didn't fall.  She felt nearly euphoric at her success. It was embarrassing being caught falling to her rear on the ice, so her success gave her courage to continue and try something new.

 

An hour later, she was moving at a healthy pace next to Cullen, only throwing her hands out to balance a few times. Even Iuen had caught up to them and was now skating on Cullen's other side just incase Tanwen's footing failed her.

 

The small family was forced to stop skating when the sun began falling behind one of the mountain peaks, allowing Satina to become more visible in the waning light. Tanwen carried Iuen up the trail next to Cullen and followed by the other villagers who had been having fun.

 

"Thank you, Cullen.  I had fun!"

 

Cullen moved over to be closer to Tanwen and Iuen, kissing the top of her head before moving to Iuen's.  "It was my pleasure.  Like chess, we should do this more often.  At least until the ice melts in a few months."

 

"I agree." Tanwen turned her head to look up at him.  "Happy First Day, Cullen."

 

Cullen smiled wide.  "Happy First Day, Tanwen."

 

~//~


End file.
